Handle with Care

Note: A little later in this post I am going to introduce you to the newest member of Hogar de la Esperanza. Due to the severe nature of her special needs, some of you may find her pictures disturbing. If you tend to see through the eyes of humans and not through the eyes of God, please move on to the next post. She is a beautiful child, created and loved by God, and if you do not understand that truth, I don’t want you to look at her.

Also, because of that, I am asking that none of you share her photo or story apart from this blog. In other words, feel free to share this blog as a whole, but do not share her pictures or details on your own. The far majority of my wonderful readers will understand that, but if you are one of the ones who does not, please stop reading and move along.

For the last 3 1/2 weeks our rural village ministry has been shut down due to vehicle problems. My mechanic, Joaquin, has been working valiantly to get my 4-Runner on the road again, but the problems have been massive and the delays, many. However, last week I was finally able to find a good truck and made the purchase last Tuesday. It is a 2008 Mitsubishi L200 diesel that has a crew cab and lots of cargo room. On Monday of this week I picked it up and immediately went to install new tires, get it serviced, purchase a brush guard and order a cap for the back.

On Tuesday we received word that the little girl in Quiche that we have been waiting for would be ready to be picked-up on Friday, so we made the decision to leave Wednesday for San Pablo La Laguna, spend a full day of ministry there on Thursday, and then come back by Quiche on Friday to pick-up the little girl. It turns out that it wasn’t as simple as we had hoped.

Our departure on Wednesday was delayed by a necessary trip to Guatemala City to do some paperwork for my new truck.  Because of traffic, typical Guatemala bureaucracy, and a mud slide that left us sitting in traffic for an hour, I was not able to get home, load up and leave for San Pablo until 3:30. But, at last, Wanda, Brittney, Daniel and I set-out.

This trip was a great christening for our new truck. On the way up we hit rain, heavy fog, traffic, and very rough roads, but she performed beautifully. We finally arrived at our motel at 9:30 and crashed hard for the evening.

The next day we had a great series of visits with families. Her are some of the high points:

• Marta Delores – This little girl has been suffering with 5 or 6 seizures a night and has slept very little over the last three months as a result. On Wednesday we had her and three other children from San Pablo down to see our neurologist, and he gave her medicine to treat the seizures. When we arrived on Thursday morning her grandmother told us that she had slept all night long without a seizure and was still sleeping! We went into her room and carried on a complete conversation and she remained in a peaceful sleep. What a joy it is to see this little girl get some relief!
• Oscar – You may remember that Oscar is a young man who fell out of a tree and broke his back while harvesting avocados. When we found him he was suffering greatly from the worst bedsores I have ever seen. Due to pain and infections he had lost lots of weight and was malnourished. We provided him with a special mattress and cushion for his wheelchair, along with monthly bandages thanks to a US sponsor, and trained the local workers from the health center to treat him daily. When we arrived on Thursday he was sitting in his wheelchair and I believe he had gained at least 10 pounds since we first met him. His sores are much better and improving by the month.
• Michael – Little Michael and his mother are very much enjoying their new bed, provided by a sponsor. They are sleeping much better now that they are not on the floor on a crib mattress. They have become a special part of our family.

 

 

 

Back on September 6th we experience and earthquake here that shook a significant percentage of the country. We evacuated our home, ran into the courtyard and waited for the shaking to stop. We experienced no damage to our home or possessions, but others did not fair as well. Several homes were destroyed near the epicenter and many more were damaged. In San Pablo, where many homes are constructed of mud bricks, we found numerous families who had experienced damage to their houses and are now afraid that another quake will bring them down. Diego’s family, in particular, now has large cracks in all four corners of their mud brick home and are afraid to remain there. But they have no where else to go. Please pray for these families.

On Thursday evening, as we were eating supper, I received an e-mail from the US Embassy in Guatemala saying that a sink hole had opened up on uthe main road to Quiche, claiming five lives and closing the road for months. That meant that the only way to Quiche to pick-up the little girl would be a rough back road drive. So, the next morning we headed out early and made it to the city of Chichicastenango, where the back roads were to begin. Unfortunately, we arrived just as a huge Independence Day parade was beginning and could not get through. Daniel called PGN and they arranged to send us a police escort to meet us and guide us through the back roads. So, my truck was once again baptized by fire.

Finally, we arrived at PGN where we squeezed in two more people and drove another hour to the town of Joyalapa where our new little one was waiting in the hospital. When we arrived, we had a tense 30 minutes because we were told that the three people in the hospital who could sign her out had left for the day. This was after a 5 hour drive on our part and after PGN had called ahead to tell them that we were coming. Miraculously, after they received a call from the judge’s office, the necessary personnel showed up. It was then that we met our newest daughter who had been abandoned by her mother.

We were taken back to the nurses station and one of the nurses went into a storage room and rolled out a basinet with a bundle of blanket inside. At first, this made me angry because I thought they were treating here differently because of her special needs. I could not have been more wrong.

I approached her bed and slowly unwrapped my little girl and was overwhelmed with emotion when I saw her. You see, we were told that this little girl had Kleeblatt Schadel Syndrome, what others calls “clover head” and we knew that her needs were likely severe. But nothing prepared us for the suffering little girl that we discovered there.

This syndrome is caused by premature fusing of the fibrous sutures, resulting in abnormalities of the skull and facial bones. The results are a cloverleaf shaped head. This condition is very rare and she is only the third documented instance in all of Guatemala. In our little girl’s case, the resulting pressure of cerebral fluid caused her eyes to bulge severely and rendered her blind. The doctors, therefore, made the decision to remove her eyes. In addition, her ears have been stretched out of place and are down on the bottom of her cheeks. There are no observable ear openings, se we suspect she is deaf or nearly so. The doctors have made the decision to suspend further treatment, such as surgery on her skull or a cerebral shunt, deciding that, while these things could possibly prolong her life, her quality of life would be very poor. So, they have asked the courts to stop further medical intervention. The courts have agreed. The doctor told us to feed her, make her as comfortable as possible, love her and trust the will of God.

While her head is swollen and misshapen, her body is tiny. She wears preemie size diapers and her limbs are little more than skin and bones. The nurses have lovingly cared for her, and many came out to say goodbye with tears in their eyes. They also gave us two bags of clothing, diapers, bibs, blankets and formula that they had donated personally (almost unheard of here). For the last four months they have fed her every 2 to 3 hours, changed her, rocked her and loved her. I list those ladies among my personal heroes. They explained that they moved her from the regular nursery to the storage room because so many were coming by to just look at her. They wanted her to be closer to them and not be on display. God bless them!

Even with her severe special needs, her personality comes through. Her little tongue is active and she loves her bottle. She interacts with us by squeezing her hand. She is one of only two people who likes my singing (the other, Gloria, is deaf as well). I think the vibrations from my chest soothe her.

She has never been given an official name, but the nurses explained that a priest had come in and christened her with the name Ruth. In respect for the nurses who loved and cared for her so wonderfully, we have chosen to keep that as her first name. For her second name, we have chosen Esperanza (Hope). We could think of no more fitting name for this precious little child.

I cannot explain to you how much we love this little girl already. She is beautiful to us and we feel very, very protective of her. So many in this culture treat people with special needs as a curse or as monsters, but Ruth Esperanza is anything but those. She is our little blessing, and we feel honored that God has entrusted us with her. I can think of no higher privilege that God could give us. The way Brittney said it was this, “We get to carry her to Jesus.”

That is very true, and when that day comes I know that she will be with Him and be perfectly healthy. But can I be honest for a minute? I don’t want to carry her to Jesus. I want to make her better. I want to fix her head and take away her pain (she is suffering greatly). I want her to laugh. I want her eyes to dance at the sight of colors. I want her to play and believe and dream and dance to the sound of music. And I want every person to see her as I do now. And I want every person to love her as our family does.

Please, don’t write me to give me theological correction. I know she will be far better off with Jesus when that time comes. I really don’t need a lecture. I love my little Esperanza and I am hurting knowing that, barring a miracle, I will have to say goodbye to her soon. And even as I know that, I still fall more in love with her each passing minute, as does our family.

Please pray for Esperanza. Please pray for our family as we love her and carry her to Jesus.

And if some of you have read to the end of this blog yet fail to see how beautiful Esperanza is, I pray that God will open your blind eyes to see as He does.

Blessings from Guate,

Daryl, Wanda and the Crew.